Asia Pacific Flight Training

Newsletter Volume 1/07

Newsletter Issue 1/07

Chairman’s Message

Asia Pacific Flight Training (APFT) has been in operation for over a year now and so it is appropriate that the academy has its own newsletter to keep students updated with the latest news in Aviation.

In this inaugural issue, we are proud to bring you the news on the launching of the academy in conjunction with the graduation of the first batch of students.

Kota Bharu airport has seen a flurry of activities with the school operating in its premises and cadets have the advantage of being in a busy commercial airport as their training environment. We hope that in addition, this newsletter will encourage cadets to widen their scope of knowledge in aviation. Contributing to the newsletter will develop the ability to share and communicate knowledge as well as improve linguistic skills.

Dato’ Faruk Othman

His Royal Highness Sultan of Kelantan Launches APFT

APFT, the aviation academy was officially opened by His Highness KDYMM Tuanku Ismail Petra Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Yahya Petra on 8th February 2007. His Royal Highness was accompanied by Her Highness the Sultanah of Kelantan, Tengku Anis.

The occasion was well attended by more then 500 guests including YAB Menteri Besar Kelantan, YAB Timbalan Menteri Besar Kelantan, Members of the State Exco and Heads of Department. The occasion was held in conjunction with the graduation of the first batch of cadet pilots trained at APFT. Guests from Kuala Lumpur that attended the occasion included officials from the Airlines, the Ministry of Transport, family and friends of the graduating cadet pilots.

The graduates were cadets from Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAS). They received their wings from His Royal Highness Sultan Ismail Petra, and there were awards for best cadets in the categories of best piloting and best academic achievers. The overall best cadet, the Top Gun Ab-Initio, received the “KDYMM Tuanku Ismail Petra Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Yahya Petra, Sultan dan Yang Dipertuan Negeri Kelantan Darul Naim” Challenge Trophy.

The launch started with a Piper Seneca piloted by Capt Ridzuan, landing and greeted by two other aircraft. A messenger alighted from the aircraft to deliver the scroll for the Sultan to receive and then declare the school launched.

The Chairman of APFT, Dato’ Faruk Othman gave a speech to thank the Royal Highnesses for gracing the occasion. He also expressed gratitude to the state officials for all the support they extended to the academy.

Guests were then treated to an aerobatic display by a team of pilots flying eagle aircraft.

The afternoon ended with a sumptuous spread of high tea after the Royal Highnesses toured the school. His Royal Highness the Sultan has great interest in aviation and also test flew the new Alsim simulator.

APFT First Batch of Students Graduate

February the 8th is a memorable day for the first batch of APFT students as they graduate on the day the school had its official launch.

The fifteen young cadet pilots from Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) received their wings from His Royal Highness the Sultan of Kelantan. The cadet pilots completed their Ab-Initio training, having passed their PPL, CPL/IR and (Frozen) ATPL examinations.

These cadets have also passed their Executive Diploma in Aviation from the Open University Malaysia (OUM). This diploma course is run by APFT in collaboration with OUM.

Muhammad Firuz is “Top Gun” in APFT Batch 01/05
Muhammad Firuz Bin Bahari won the overall best student for batch 01/05 and received the challenge trophy for Top Gun on graduation day. The best student for Piloting was Suhail Bin Ismail and for Academic was Kumaran a/l Subramaniam.

Interviewed by the press Muhammad Firuz said “I am glad to have the training here as the instructors are excellent, approachable although very strict with discipline. Training in Kota Bharu has the advantage of being able to fully concentrate on our training, there’s no distraction!”


Overall Best Student Top Gun Ab-Initio Muhammad Firuz Bin Bahari	Gold Medalist Piloting Suhail Bin Ismail	Gold Medalist Academic Kumaran a/l Subramaniam

Digital Library

Students should be able to make full use of the digital library now that the new additional computers have been installed.

Helicopter Training

The Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia has given approval for Asia Pacific Flight Training to conduct training of helicopter pilots. The academy will be acquiring helicopters for the purpose of conducting the course of Ab-Initio training for helicopter licence.

Additional Aircraft Arriving

To cater for the needs for additional aircraft, APFT have made orders for two additional twin engine aircraft. The two Diamond 42 aircraft are part of the order for new Diamond aircraft that include another 10 Single engine aircraft. The two Diamond 42 aircraft will be arriving in May.

APFT now uses four Eagle aircraft, six Piper single engine aircraft and two Piper Seneca twin engine aircraft.

AL200MCC Simulator

APFT purchased the AL200MCC simulator for the training of their cadets. DCA has approved 20 hours of training time on the simulator to be logged. The device is a state of the art equipment built in France by the Alsim company.

About AL200MCC device:
Developed by pilots and engineers, the AL200MCC is easily integrated into the professional training program and combine cost-efficiency and quality. Alsim Flight Training Devices’ (FTD) have been qualified and are compliant with multiple authorities including JAA, TC, FAA and CASA.

APFT chose the AL200 MCC because it can be easily reconfigured to simulate a wide range of aircraft training. A simple mouse click makes it possible to change from a single to a twin piston engine. It can simulate a twin turbo prop aircraft, like the Piper Cheyenne or a Beech 200 as well as simulate a light jet aircraft like the Cessna C550 Citation II. With this advanced Flight Training Device, APFT is equipped with the most efficient solution for all PPL, CPL, IR and MCC regulations.

The FNPT II and MCC’s double configuration certifies the flight trainer for MCC and IFR rating. The aerodynamic behavior of the included flight models is close to reality, and the electric control loading system allows pilots to experience highly realistic and reliable flight sensations. With its entirely active flight panels and controls, pilots can carry out all normal and emergency checklists.

Students Move Into ‘Crew Residence’

The resort style accommodation for students in Panchor was completed in March. Students have moved in early April. Each building houses 6 students and there is a Main House that provides common facilities such as dining areas and lounge areas.

Introducing The Team

Principal
Maj. (Rtd) Mohd Khalid bin Ali (PTU,KPK), has been in the Aviation industry for more than 36 years with 25 years of it in Management aviation. A product of the Royal Military College, Maj. Khalid trained in RAF Cranwell, UK for the Squadron Commander Course, and continued with the Flying Instructor’s course. Major Khalid’s experience is mainly as an instructor and examiner. He had done offshore operations and corporate flying for VVIPs. He holds an ATPL licence and is an A2 Category flight instructor.

	Chief Instructor Capt Mohd Dahlan bin Mohd Hashim has been in the aviation industry for 31 years. He holds an ATPL licence and is a QF1 instructor. Capt. Dahlan is also an approved examiner.
	Chief Flying Instructor Capt Mokhyiddin Abu Bakar has 32 years experience in aviation. He was formally from the Royal Malaysian Airforce and Malaysian Airline Systems. He holds an ATPL.
	Chief Ground Instructor Capt Baharuddin bin Kamaruddin has been in the aviation industry for 36 years. He holds several licences, ATPL (CAA UK), ATPL (DCA Malaysia), CPL (BERMUDA), CPL(IRAN). His other qualifications includes MBA(Cardiff UK) Dip M(CIM UK) DBS.
	Senior Executive Operations Syed Ramdzan Bin Byros Khan is the senior executive in charge of the overall administration of the academy. Trained in computer science, Syed’s experience is in IT and management.

Is air travel safer than other modes of transport?

By Capt Zeenu

The aviation industry unlike many other industries is relatively new, coming into existence only about a hundred years ago. Although this is the case, the industry has grown very rapidly and has come to a point where it is a complex and dynamic entity worth billions of dollars worldwide. It has made traveling cheaper, faster, convenient and efficient. It has created new jobs and has supplemented the global economy to a large extent. Most people today have travelled by air at some point of their lives. Despite this, the general public have always associated some form of danger or risk with aviation. Fifty years ago the public were reluctant to travel by air because it was a new mode of transport and it took time for the public to get convinced and get used to the fact that air travel was safe. Today, however, the public is skeptical of the aviation industry because of the incidents that have taken place in the past decades in the industry and because of the abundant information that is readily available about it.

There are some obvious reasons on why the public tends to associate some sort of risk to aviation. For a start, the public reacts negatively to air disasters when lives are lost in a big scale. The media does extensive coverage on air disasters and on some occasions it gives the impression to the public that air travel is risky. Incidents like the one, which took place in Tenerife’s Los Rodeo’s airport, in 1977 where a Pan Am Boeing 747 and a KLM Boeing 747 collided resulting in five hundred and eighty three deaths (Job, 1994) and when TWA flight 800 exploded in midair off Long Island, New York in 1996 (Francis, 2002) have made the public intolerant to aviation mishaps. Also, terrorist acts on civil airline aircrafts like the incident which took place over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 where a bomb on Pan Am flight 103 exploded, killing everyone on board (Francis, 2002) and more recently on September 11 2001 when two hijacked Boeing 767s flew into two World Trade Center buildings in New York (Bond, 2001) have made the general public apprehensive about air travel. The general public all over world has begun to question about air safety and risks associated with the aviation industry.

A conclusion can be made here based on the fact that when the media exposes the public about mishaps where many human lives are lost, people generally tend to feel some amount of discomfort about the mishaps. On the contrary, the public do not necessary feel uncomfortable when human lives are lost on a smaller scale. For example, when someone dies in a road accident. The media does not do much coverage about such incidents that happen on a small scale and the public end up thinking that road transport can be much safer than air transport. For instance, Hawkins (1987) states that “In the four day 1991 Easter holidays in Spain alone, 147 people were killed on Spanish roads – normal for the vacation period. The news barely received a mention in the local newspaper”.

Data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002) indicates that for the year 1999 a total of 2011 deaths were recorded due to transport related accidents in Australia. Out of the 2011 deaths, a staggering 1861 deaths were directly linked to road transport, compared to 50 deaths associated with air transport. The Commonwealth’s Transport Directions – Task and Outlook (2000) states “no fatalities were recorded by the high-capacity air transport sector during the past decade”. This goes to indicate that other forms of transport can be more risky than air transport in Australia.

Apart from aviation mishaps there are other forms of risks that might be in the public’s mind. Two years ago a healthy 28 year old British woman died after a flight from Australia to London (Gregory, 2002). Her death was associated with D.V.T (Deep Vein Thrombosis) or commonly called “economy class syndrome”. Since then, there has been much media coverage on the malady and the public has been pushing airline operators to take measures to prevent it. Most airline operators are currently taking steps to address the issues.

The World Under Our Feet

By Soud Salum Al-Toky
Batch 06-07

After so long of dreaming, finally I end up in APFT where slowly my dreams are becoming a reality. When I see pilots I used to admire them and wish they could just smile at me. I was always looking at the sky and searching for the wonderful machines and asked myself what really makes it fly? Now I know the magic answer and I am here to take all the responsibilities of these huge machines with all passengers and that I will be taking them from point A to point B. Anyone can fly, but to be disciplined, responsible, and a good pilot needs commitment from you. Just to remind you, getting a pilot license it does not mean you have succeeded, we all have work to do!

ICAO Introduces New Procedures On Training For The Multi-Crew Pilot License

The Aviation industry has been buzzing with the news on the new pilot qualification established by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the MPL or Multi-crew pilot licence.

With the recommendation of ICAO’s flight crew licensing training panel (FCLTP), the new licence was incorporated into the ICAO Annex 1 (Personnel Licensing) in November 2006. On 1 December 2006 the MPL was incorporated into the European pilot licensing regulations.

The training for MPL will develop the abilities of pilots to fly the multi-crew airline aeroplanes. This is different from the traditional training methods that emphasise on skills for single- pilot operations, and independency. ICAO has issued in its PANS-TRG (Procedures for air navigation services-training) document, a new set of procedures on training and this will shift the focus from prescriptive flying hours to competency-based training and assessment.

The training makes greater use of simulators. However pilots can still opt for the traditional pathway of training to qualify as a co-pilot, progressing from PPL, through to CPL and ATPL.

Pilots Need To Have Minimum Level Four Aviation English

There is a new ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) ruling that all airline and helicopter pilots who fly internationally and all traffic controllers who provide services to international flights must have a minimum level of English. This level of English must be demonstrated before March 2008.

ICAO has developed a rating scale with level 4 being the minimum acceptable level required for those involved.

Level 4, referred to as the “Operational Level” has the following criteria:

Pronunciation, which assumes a dialect and/or accent intelligible to the aeronautical community.
Structure, which involves relevant grammatical structures and sentence patterns which would determine the meaning.
Vocabulary range and accuracy that ought to be sufficient to communicate effectively on work related topic.
Fluency that produces stretches of language at an appropriate tempo.
Comprehension that has to be accurate on common, concrete and work related topics.
Interactions, which should be immediate, appropriate and informative.

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